Tag Archives: SKB

Oh dear

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Was my last post in January!?!? No, my dear readers, if there are any of you out there, I am not dead. I have been in a bit of a funk. My efforts to review my programing fell off, and I took about a month to explore Evequest. (it,l once again got too clogged and complicated. I have been working on broadening my Knowledge Base.

In trying to bring history to life, I have a distinct preference to begin at the beginning, in prehistory, so I have been trying to broaden the connections of prehistory to other subjects. That’s finally done for now. I have connected history in general to all the nations of the world and connected Western Civilization, communities, nearly all of social mechanics, and religion to other major subjects. I’m still working on getting government well connected.

I believe I have reached a point where I have enough detail to be close to examining Africa. We shall see what develops.

The future is being plotted

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History is currently planning the consideration of 44 cities, I have been recently reviewing Middle Eastern peoples and cities, and am currently reviewing Western peoples and cities. For prehistory, my current plans have so far considered 11 cities, none of them going back to this period. For Antiquity, there are 19 cities, only 3 going back to this period. For classical and medieval history, there are 29 cities. 2 are Western and about 19 Asiatic, which rather strongly points to asiatic peoples as the most productive. For modern history, there are 39. Since so many of the cities of the world have been founded in modern times, I find myself being diverted into consideration of the future before I go into details of the 20th century. For the future, current plans have 12 cities, with so far a principal emphasis on Asiatic peoples.

For Cartography, I have been working mostly on the hand plotted version of the globe.

Since I created this version, North America now includes Baffin Island, and Eurasia now has the Black Sea.

Why China?

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Much of my work in history in general is being driven by the addition of cities, which prompts the development of nations, although I am feeling the need to connect to details of social mechanics and institutions. This doesn’t work so well for examination of prehistory, since so few of the major cities of the world can be traced back that far. Likewise, the important cities of antiquity have not maintained their former size and importance. The development using cities applies best to modern history.

The size and number of communities has been forcing me to take a closer look at at China, since so many of the cities of the world, especially the largest, are Chinese. China’s capital of Beijing is located in North Central China, and to get to this has involved quite a bit of development of modern history. I’ve developed this far enough that I can start closer examination of classical and medieval history. This still won’t be enough without covering other aspects of Chinese history, but it’s a start.

Details of modern history and current events involve looking at the 19th century, 20th century, and early 21st century. I’m not pushing these hard, but I am advancing them,

I still want to examine my local community, but this is far down the list of cities that need to be examined.

I’m still working on cartography. In my Mercator globe project, I’ve been plotting more of the outline of the continents, and have southern and Eastern Asia and Africa now looking recognizable, though not yet perfect. I still need to work on the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, as well as adding more islands.

Prehistoric woes

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I have been extending my plans into history and have about 30 of the largest cities of the world, and their corresponding nations. I got a fair amount done in modern history. Prehistory is a different beast. I can’t really use modern cities, and concentrating on the Middle East means that I skip over a lot of history that influences the study of prehistory. This means mostly that I need to keep connecting cities to modern history, and do what I can extending them to classical and medieval history as well.

My cartography exercises are continuing. I’m not ready to show another image here. There are several styles of overland maps, a few styles of city maps, and a few styles of dungeon or local maps that I’m more or less working on learning.

More plans

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Plans are continuing to evolve. At the most general level of history, I am further outlining sketches of the history of smaller nations of the Middle East. For further work at this level, I will be adding cities. Work in prehistory really depends on work in antiquity and in classical and medieval history, but I have better plans for development of these. Modern history is approaching the point where I can start adding in cities. I also have plans for most of the major peoples of the world.

I haven’t dropped my efforts in cartography.

Earth’s coastline, about 15,000 years before present.


This was produced using Fractal Terrains 3 and Campaign Cartographer using data from the National Geophysical Data Center. I imported data from the ETOPO1 Geophysical Relief model into FT3, dropped the sea level about 425 feet, used a segmented Lambert Equal Area projection, and exported the coastline into Campaign Cartographer, (with a little help from people at the ProFantasy forums and the Cartographer’s Guild.).

The map is almost familiar, I didn’t show the ice caps. Even at this scale, It’s possible to see such features as the land bridge between Russia and Alaska, the attachment of Britain to the European mainland, that most of the Indonesian archipelago was above water, the absence of the Persian Gulf, and the greater extent of Australia.

Complexity

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One of the difficulties in developing my Knowledge base is that I have multiple inconsistent, incompatible approaches that I am trying to balance. Not necessarily in order, these are: 1) Begin at the beginning. This begins with prehistory. This is held back by the need to develop nations and peoples through later periods, 2) Current events. This is held up because the weight or emphasis of the best reported events does not match the general development plan. 3) Development of societies. This is held up because development in order of size or population doesn’t meed the demands of either history or current events. 4) Local interest. This is held up because those events of greatest local interest don’t meet the requirements of the other approaches. 5) Emphasis on non-historical or geographical approoches. This is held up by the need to develop history and peoples, of the world.

The general plan or scheme for development I have been using is often too inflexible to meet the varying requirements. I am trying a new plan, one which offers a “softer”, more flexible approach of identifying areas that need more work.

For history in general, this involves filling in more information on smaller nations and larger communities and cities. This has been heavily influenced by the needs and information available from modern history, but for various purposes, I need to focus more on Asiatic peoples, and especially those of the Middle East.

The plan for prehistory at present requires more attention to later periods. I have so far been concentrating on Asian and African prehistory and not given much attention to European prehistory.

The development of the area I have called Sociology also needs a plan. I am doing a review of history, which is so far more satisfactory than my previous attempts. At a later stage, I will be attempting to follow this to its roots in institutions, culture, and anthropology.

One of the tools I have been meaning to use is the making of maps. I’m using a program called Campaign Cartographer (CC3+) from ProFantasy, which I can adapt to real-world maps. I’ve been intermittently playing with it for about four years. It has a steep learning curve, but I hope this time around it will be more useful.

Longer tail

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The list of topics to be investigated has grown long enough that I can no longer go through the whole thing two or three times a day. I am also finding a need to work on the finer and lower level subdivisions,

The early 21st century is being connected to elements of anthropology. The late 20th century is being connected to elements of institutions. The 19th century and 18th century are fully collected for now. The 17th century is bin connected to science but is on hold for a while. the 16th century is being connected to elements of anthropology. Late medieval history is being connected to elements of institutions.

Anglic peoples are being connected to elements of culture and anthropology. Latin peoples are being connected to institutions.
Asiatic peoples are being connected to physics, but are on hold for a while. African peoples are being connected to personal studies and science, but are on hold for a while. Amrican Indian peoples are being connected to elements of culture and are briefly on hold.

Anglic cities, which so far including Anglo-American and British cities. are being connected to institutions. Asiatic cities will be developing soon. African cities are being connected to culture and are briefly on hold. American Indian cities are being connected to institutions.

Social change is being being connected to elements of institutions and culture, Social types are soon to be connected to institutions.

Particular religions are being connected to other institutions and culture. Government is complete for now and on hold. Economics is being connected to science and is on hold for now. Education is being connected to the human body and is on hold for now. Family studies are being connected to elements of culture.

Behavioral culture is being connected to elements of anthropology and personal studies, and is on hold for now. Conceptual culture is being connected to elements of institutions.

Particular groups are being connected to institutions.

Yet more development

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The early 21st century is being connected to culture and anthropology, just behind the 16th century. The late 20th century is on the list to develop soon, but is held up by other areas. The 19th century is complete for now, and the 18th century is connecting to physics. The 17th century is being connected to personal studies, and the 16th century is being connected to culture and anthropology. Late medieval history is close to resuming development.

Western Civilization is complete for now, and Anglic peoples are being connected to institutions. Latin peoples are on the horizon, Asiatic peoples are being connected to sciences, African peoples to Anthropology and personal studies, and American Indian peoples to elements of culture.

Western cities are being connected to elements of personal studies an sciences. Anglic ciies are on the horizon. Asian cities are being connected to elements of anthropology, African cities are being connected to institutions. American Indian cities are on the horizon.

Social change is being connected to institutions, but is held back for now. Social types are on the horizon.

Religion is complete for now. Particular religions are waiting for other areas to be developed., and religious organization is on the distant horizon. Government is complete for now. Particular govenments are on the distant horizon. Economics is being connected to personal studies, education to elements of anthropology,, and family to other institutions.

Behavioral culture is being connected to other culture and elements of anthropology. Cultural events are on the distant horizon. Conceptual culture is waiting for other developments. Material culture is on the distant horizon.

Particular groups are waiting for other developments. Human geography is on the distant horizon.

And more development

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The early 21st century is somewhat overdeveloped and is held back by the need to connect the 16th century. The 18th century is being connected to personal studies and science. The 17th century is being connected to elements of antropology. The 16th century is connecting to institutions.

Western civilization is being connected to physics. I am close to resuming progress on Anglic peoples. Asiatic peoples are being connected to personal studies and biology.. African peoples are being connected to elments of anthropology, Ameican Indian peoples are close to resuming progress.

Western cities are being connected to anthropology and personal studies.. Asian cities are being connected to culture and anthropology, African cities are close to resuming connections.

Social change is close to adding more connetions but is not quite tehre.

Govenment is being connected to sciences. Economics is being connected to elements of anthropology. Education is being connected to cultura and anthropology.

Behavioral culture is being connected to institutions.

Still more development

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The detailed investigation of the 20th century is about to begin with the early 21st century. This is slightly held back by the need to clear the way with developments of the 16th century, education and behavioral culture. The 19th century is now fully connected to science. The 18th century is connecting to details of personal studies. The 17th century is being connected to details of culture and anthropology. The 16th century is waiting on developments of education and behavioral culture.

All three major divisions of sociology are now fully connected to aids. Western civilization is being connected to details of science. Asiatic peoples are being connected to details of anthropology. African peoples are being connected to culture and anthropology.

Western cities are being connected to elements of anthropology and personal studies. Asian cities are being connected to institutions.

Social mechanics is now fully connected to aids through the sciences.

Government is now being connected to personal studies and science. Economics is being connected to culture and anthropology. Education is being connected to other institutions.

Behavioral culture is being connected to institutions.